Chicken and Egg Festival set for weekend

By Staff
Kristy Williams Thompson FCT News Intern
The second annual Alabama Chicken and Egg Festival will be held Saturday and Sunday, April 8 and 9 in Moulton with the 70's country-rock band Dr. Hook featuring Ray Sawyer set to perform Saturday night at 8 p.m.
Vicki Morese, director of the Lawrence County Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber was able to book the headline band because of generous sponsors including ALFA Farmers Insurance and Commissioner Ron Sparks with the Department of Agriculture.
Morese said the festival is part of an ongoing effort to encourage tourism in North Alabama.
Admission to the festival is $2 per person, and children ages 5 and under are admitted free. Last year the festival raised more than $12,000, which Morese said &#8220isn't bad for an festival 's first year.”
Saturday's events will begin with a Battle of the Bands Competition, followed by the performances of Papa Swag, Adam Hood, and Willie King and the Liberators featuring Debbie Bond. The night will end with Dr. Hook featuring Ray Sawyer singing their hits from the 70's and 80's including &#8220The Cover of the Rolling Stone,” &#8220Sharing the Night Together,” &#8220When You're in Love With a Beautiful Woman,” and &#8220Sylvia's Mother,” and &#8220Freakin' at the Freaker's Ball.”
According to the self-titled historian of Dr. Hook, Mike Paquin, who writes about the band on www.doctorhook.com, &#8220I know firsthand that the Dr. Hook featuring Ray Sawyer shows are a blast.”
Paquin writes that Sawyer's shows are the closest anyone can get to reliving Dr. Hook's performances of the 70's and 80's. The website also features an online petition to have Dr. Hook nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, so if you enjoy the show, Paquin asks that you visit the site and add your name to the list.
Dr. Hook's performance will be followed by a fireworks show at 9:45 p.m.
Sunday morning the winner of the Battle of the Bands will perform followed by local gospel artists performing as part of the Southern Gospel Egg-stravaganza sponsored by Bank Independent.
Children's activities will be held throughout both days, and other events will include an egg toss contest, beauty pageant, chicken wing and hard boiled egg eating contests, chicken dance, local celebrity readings, karaoke, comedy circus routines, barbecue chicken cooking contest, chicken bowling, and a chicken joke telling contest.
The festival will be held at the Lions Club Fairgrounds at School St. in Moulton, Ala. For more information and a complete list of events and sponsors, call the Lawrence County Chamber of Commerce at 1-800-974-1658 or visit the Chamber website at www.lawre